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2. An Economy that Works for Women: Achieving Women's Economic Empowerment in an Increasingly Unequal World
- Author:
- Rowan Harvey, Anam Parvez, and Francesca Rhodes
- Publication Date:
- 03-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- Women’s economic empowerment could reduce poverty for everyone. In order to achieve it, we need to first fix the current broken economic model which is undermining gender equality and causing extreme economic inequality. The neoliberal model has made it harder for women to have better quality and better paid jobs, address inequality in unpaid care work, and women’s influence and decision making power is constrained. To achieve women’s economic empowerment, we need a human economy that works for women and men alike, and for everyone, not just the richest 1%.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Labor Issues, Discrimination, and Femininity
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
3. Good Jobs in Greater Manchester: The Role of Employment Charters
- Author:
- Emily Ball, Ceri Hughes, Donna-Louise Hurrell, and Tom Skinner
- Publication Date:
- 04-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- A more inclusive labour market would offer more people the chance to take part in rewarding, well-paid work, bringing both economic and social benefits. In the context of declining union membership, limited employment regulation and a growing disconnect between pay and living costs, employment charters are one means for cities to engage employers and start a conversation about how their employment practices can enable local people to live and work well. This paper and the accompanying case studies grew out of a conversation about ways to facilitate more inclusive growth in cities. It focuses on Greater Manchester and reviews the rationale, design and impact of several local employment charter initiatives in the UK to assess the role that they can play in creating and sustaining quality jobs.
- Topic:
- Poverty, Labor Issues, Employment, and Inequality
- Political Geography:
- United Kingdom and Europe
4. Oxfam’s Future of Business Initiative: Promoting Equitable Businesses and Fourth Sector Development
- Author:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Publication Date:
- 09-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- Since the turn of the century, the poorest half of the world’s population has received just 1% of the total increase in global wealth. Meanwhile, half the new wealth has gone to the richest 1%. At present, mainstream business is driving, rather than reversing, this disturbing trend. To help reverse this trend, we need rapid growth of equitable business structures with purpose, fairness and sustainability embedded into their model. In efforts to promote such equitable business structures, and the fourth sector, Oxfam is launching the Future of Business Initiative. Through this initiative, Oxfam will help such enterprises access finance and work with global companies on how they can include them in their supply chains. Oxfam will also investigate how having more businesses structured more equitably can contribute towards tackling global inequality, and ways government policies can better foster them, and the broader fourth sector.
- Topic:
- Development, Poverty, Labor Issues, Private Sector, and Equity
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
5. Tourism’s Dirty Secret: The exploitation of hotel housekeepers
- Author:
- Diana Sarosi
- Publication Date:
- 10-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- Tourism is booming and generates millions of jobs for women around the world. Yet the hotel industry exemplifies the vast inequality of today’s world. The women who make hotel beds and clean hotel toilets labour long hours for meagre pay, face sexual harassment and intimidation, are exposed daily to toxic chemicals and live in fear of arbitrary dismissal. Meanwhile, the top-earning hotel CEOs can earn more in an hour than some housekeepers do in a year. Such systematic exploitation is not inevitable. The hotel industry, consumers and governments must all be part of the solution to end the economic exploitation of women. This report examines the working lives of housekeepers in Toronto, Canada, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic and Phuket, Thailand. In dozens of interviews with hotel housekeepers, representatives of workers’ organizations and hotel managers, Oxfam found five overarching trends common to the three locations: in non-unionized hotels, extremely low wages that are not sufficient to live on; serious health risks and high rates of injury; high rates of sexual harassment; difficulty organizing due to employer resistance and bad management practices; and a lack of adequate child care.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Labor Issues, Governance, Tourism, Sexual Violence, and Exploitation
- Political Geography:
- Canada, Asia, Caribbean, Dominican Republic, North America, and Thailand
6. Why is Women’s Work Low-Paid? Establishing a framework for understanding the causes of low pay among professions traditionally dominated by women
- Author:
- Jill Rubery
- Publication Date:
- 11-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- This discussion paper was commissioned by Oxfam’s UK Programme to understand why certain occupations in the UK labour market, traditionally dominated by women, are low-paid. The paper argues that jobs associated with traditional and outdated notions of ‘women’s role in the home’ extends into the jobs market. This affects attitudes towards remuneration in professions such as cleaning and caring. The paper sets out a framework for understanding the risks of low pay and to explore the issue of the undervaluing of low-paid jobs with respect primarily to women. The author calls these the five ‘V’s: visibility, valuation, vocation, value-added and variance, and sets out a possible series of policy responses.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Poverty, Labor Issues, Inequality, Income Inequality, and Labor Rights
- Political Geography:
- United Kingdom and Europe
7. Made in Myanmar: Entrenched poverty or decent jobs for garment workers?
- Author:
- Daisy Gardener and Jasmine Burnley
- Publication Date:
- 12-2015
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- In Myanmar, the garment industry is booming thanks to an upsurge in investment by international brands, but garment workers are facing tough conditions. According to new research from Oxfam and labour rights groups in Myanmar, garment workers are working up to 11 hours a day, six days a week, but remain trapped in poverty. Following decades of economic isolation, political reforms have seen global retail heavyweights like GAP, H&M, Primark and Adidas starting to source from Myanmar factories. With the garment industry growing quickly, companies need to act now to ensure that workers making their products can access their fundamental rights and provide a decent living for themselves and their families. This briefing paper presents the research findings and makes recommendations for international sourcing companies and factories to help them protect garment workers' rights.
- Topic:
- Labor Issues, Investment, Clothing, and Garmet Industry
- Political Geography:
- Burma and Myanmar
8. Wages and Labor Market Slack: Making the Dual Mandate Operational
- Author:
- Adam S. Posen and David G. Blanchflower
- Publication Date:
- 09-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- In this paper we examine the impact of rises in inactivity on wages in the US economy and find evidence of a statistically significant negative effect. These nonparticipants exert additional downward pressure on wages over and above the impact of the unemployment rate itself. This pattern holds across recent decades in the US data, and the relationship strengthens in recent years when variation in participation increases. We also examine the impact of long-term unemployment on wages and find it has no different effect from that of short-term unemployment. Our analysis provides strong empirical support, we argue, for the assessment that continuing labor market slack is a key reason for the persistent shortfall in inflation relative to the Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC) 2 percent inflation goal. Further, we suggest our results point towards using wage inflation as an additional intermediate target for monetary policy by the FOMC.
- Topic:
- Economics, Markets, and Labor Issues
- Political Geography:
- United States and Middle East
9. A Mushrooming business: How Oxfam is facilitating development of the horticulture sector while improving the status of women in Rwanda
- Author:
- Sharad Eldon Mahajan and Laura Kigali
- Publication Date:
- 09-2013
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- What change(s) was this approach intending to influence through its leverage strategy? Oxfam's livelihoods work in Rwanda focuses on women's economic leadership in the horticulture sector. In making women an integral part of the supply chain, we hope to bring about long - term societal change, both facilitating development of the horticulture sector and improving the status of women. We seek to do this by working with and through partners such as the government, private sector, micro finance institutions (MFIs), and civil society, to leverage large - scale change through evidence - based advocacy.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Civil Society, Development, Gender Issues, and Labor Issues
- Political Geography:
- Africa
10. The Perfect Storm: Economic stagnation, the rising cost of living, public spending cuts, and the impact on UK poverty
- Author:
- Moussa Haddad
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- The combination in the UK of economic stagnation and public spending cuts is causing substantial hardship to people living in poverty. This amounts to a 'Perfect Storm' of falling incomes, rising prices, public service cuts, benefit cuts, a housing crisis, and weak labour rights. By making different political choices, the government can both protect people in poverty and help to stimulate economic recovery in the short term, and set the UK on the way towards economic, social and environmental sustainability in the long term.
- Topic:
- Economics, Environment, Poverty, Labor Issues, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- United Kingdom
11. Paying the Price for the Economic Crisis
- Author:
- Bethan Emmett
- Publication Date:
- 03-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- New research by Oxfam International uncovers a hidden aspect of the global economic crisis – its impact on women workers in developing countries. Preliminary findings from Oxfam's research with women in global supply chains shows that the crisis is having a devastating impact on their livelihoods, their rights, and their families. Women are often first to be laid off, with employers leaving pay outstanding and evading legal obligations to give notice and pay compensation, and governments turning a blind eye, with devastating knock-on effects. Last year, women's wages were putting food on the table and children through school in millions of families. Now, the lives of women who were already suffering from poor labour conditions have become even more precarious.
- Topic:
- Economics, Gender Issues, Globalization, Political Economy, and Labor Issues